The 23rd Annual Women of Color STEM Conference Host Committee Meeting for the month will take place on Friday, May 18, 2018, from 12:00 - 1:30 pm. The meeting location is the Granite City Food & Brewery at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan.

Friday’s guest speaker will be Angela Thompkins, director of Talent Acquisition, Diversity, and Inclusion at Consumers Energy, a top-ranked Michigan-based company.

Thompkins serves as the advisor to the Consumers Energy's Employee Resource groups. Under her leadership, the company’s diversity and inclusion initiatives have been recognized by Forbes, DiversityInc, Military Times, Best for Vets, Corporate Equality Index and National Organization On Disability to name a few.

Thompkins also serves on the Inclusion Committee for NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) and the Board of Directors for the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science; a Juris Doctor and an LL.M. in Labor and Employment law.

Below are excerpts from her interview with Career Communications Group's Women of Color magazine.

I am a lawyer by trade. I worked as a prosecutor for several years until I realized the criminal aspect wasn’t what I really wanted to do for the rest of my life.

I left prosecuting and went to work for Chrysler, where I worked in labor relations in Human Resources and helped with contract disputes, grievances, and arbitrations. I did that for a while and then pursued another role as a lobbyist.

During the economic downturn in 2008–2009, I took a buyout from Chrysler, left the automotive industry, and returned to practicing law. I ran the Fair Housing Center for Legal Aid of Detroit, where I helped residents that were facing discrimination as it related to housing, getting a mortgage, or renting an apartment. I did federal housing litigation for a couple of years and then worked on criminal justice issues for the State of Michigan to help reduce sentencing for nonviolent crimes.

This was important to me because there is a disparate impact on minorities getting higher sentences when they have nonviolent crimes.

I left there and went to U.S. Foods, and I eventually left there and landed at Consumers Energy, where I am now and have been for four years.

I’ve had a variety of roles in that four-year time period.

Over the last two years, I’ve been doing diversity and inclusion along with staffing, in which I ensure that we have a diverse set of hires. I also work to create a culture that is one of inclusion so that when we bring that diverse set of hires into the company, the culture welcomes them, makes them feel comfortable, and naturally encourages new hires to stay with the company.

In the role that I have now, there have been a number of challenging questions posed:

The message for me is that we’re all in this together. It is truly one of inclusiveness for everyone. We should care about our veterans and our LGBTQ individuals or individuals with disabilities.

I’ve always taken it very personally if I ever heard a bad joke or heard something inappropriate toward another group. My thought was if you are disparaging toward that group, and you’re bold enough to say it in front of my face, what are you saying about me to others?

I wasn’t only looking out for the best interests of females or minorities; it has always been about making sure that all employees, regardless of who they are and where they come from, how they love and what they believe, have a great work experience if they work for us.

I see it as a personal commitment to creating that inclusive environment for everyone.

One of the biggest challenges has been getting to see this as an “everyone” issue, not just “their” issue. It’s getting everyone to see and believe that they are a part of diversity and that in that, they also have a personal and professional responsibility to promote inclusion.

So there are still some companies that believe diversity is just black and white, male and female.

Today diversity encompasses education, experiences, and beliefs. Those differences shape and mold how we think and how we approach and solve problems. If people can broaden their perspectives on what diversity is, I think that would help us culturally to ensure that we are all doing our part to create an inclusive environment.

People look at me and make the assumption that I only want to make it better for African-American people or for women. That’s the first thing that I address when I get in front of a group to talk about diversity and inclusion: It’s about so much more than me. It’s more than what I look like. I do think that people make assumptions that I’m only there to ensure more women and minorities get hired, and that’s not the case at all.

Since I’ve been in the role, we’ve had three employer resource groups: one for women, one for minorities, and one for women engineers. We’ve since grown our employee resource groups from three to seven. Now we have one for individuals with disabilities, one for veterans, a multigenerational employer resource group, and one for people who identify as LGBT. We didn’t have any of those before. I hope people see that it’s not just about people that look like me. It really is about creating a safe space for every single one of us.

Those groups were born out of looking at data and assessing what people were saying. For example, our company initially had three percent of its employees identified as veterans. Once we started the veterans employer resource group, we saw the veteran self-identification increase from three percent to 11 percent.

Being a veteran became a point of pride, so people weren’t afraid to say they were a veteran. I heard someone say they thought being labeled a veteran would immediately label them as having PTSD or impose other negative assumptions.

I’m not a veteran, but that was extremely hurtful to me when I heard it. That’s not who we are or who we want to be as a company. Something is culturally wrong if people feel they cannot be open about or express that they are veterans. Now being a veteran has become a point of pride. The ironic thing is that some of these same people have been with the company for years. Nothing has changed other than the fact that as a company we stood up and said, “Being you is okay.”

Click here to learn more about the 23rd Annual Women of Color STEM Conference Host Committee Meeting. The event for the month will take place on Friday, May 18, 2018, from 12:00 - 1:30 pm. The meeting location will the Granite City Food & Brewery at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan.